1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of consumer electronics, and in particular, to the remote control of electronic devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Remote control devices for electronic equipment are common in the art. A remote control device includes means for controlling each of the functions of the equipment being controlled. If the equipment being controlled allows for the selection among a variety of channels, the remote control device typically includes a control to select a particular channel, as well as a channel-up and a channel-down control to allow for an incremental selection of the channels. Such remote control devices typically communicate an xe2x80x9cincrement channelxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cdecrement channelxe2x80x9d command to the equipment being controlled. In response to the received command, the equipment being controlled selects the next channel above or below the current channel. In many cases, the equipment being controlled also includes an ability to skip one or more channels, based upon the quality of the received signal at each channel, or based upon a user""s preference. That is, for example, television channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 may be the channels associated with a particular area; if the currently tuned channel is channel 5, an increment command results in a change to channel 7, and a decrement command results in a change to channel 4. In like manner, channels 2, 3, 4, 5, etc., may be available, but channels 2 and 3 may be the same network transmitting in alternative local areas. The user may program the equipment being controlled to skip either channel 2 or channel 3, depending upon the user""s preference of local area coverage.
With over a hundred television channels typically available to most users, and the prediction of hundreds of television channels being provided in the near future, the feasibility of scanning for a program of interest via a channel increment/decrement process is questionable, at best. A user may program the remote control device or the equipment being controlled to exclude channels of little or no interest, such as channels that transmit in a different language than that of the user, channels that exclusively deal with topics of little or no interest to the user, and so on. Such a process of identifying channels of disinterest, and by implication, channels of interest, eases the program selection process somewhat, by reducing the number of channels being scanned. This process, however, is only effective for removing those channels that the user can determine will never broadcast a program of interest to this user. In most cases, this process still results in a large number of channels being of potential interest to the user.
The deficiency of the available methods of incremental channel scanning methods is primarily related to the fact that such methods are based upon the numeric designation of the channels, whereas the numeric designation has no bearing or correlation to the user""s desires. A user may wish to scan every channel that has not been expressly excluded, in which case, a scan by numeric designation may be an effective technique. In many cases, however, the user would prefer to scan only those channels that are broadcasting programs of interest to the user at the time that the user is scanning. That is, if the user is in the mood for comic relaxation, the user would prefer to incrementally scan only those channels that are currently broadcasting a comedic program; at other times, the user may prefer to scan only those channels that are broadcasting a news program; and so on. In these scenarios, the numeric designation of the channel is irrelevant to the task of providing programs having a particular topic, or genre.
The reliance on numerical channel designations or network identifiers is further reflected in program guides that are conventionally presented in the order of channel number or network identifier. On-screen program guides are particularly inefficient for finding programs of interest that may have significantly different channel numbers, and a significant portion of the available display area is devoted to the display of each channel number and each network identifier, to facilitate the entry of the channel number corresponding to the user""s selection, or the incremental stepping to the desired channel number. As noted above, the numeric designation of the channel is irrelevant to the task of selecting a desired program, but required for conventional channel selection to reach the desired program.
Therefore, a need exists for a device or process that allows a user to easily scan programs based upon the user""s current interests. A need also exists for a device or process that allows the user to easily select a program based on available program information.
The invention provides a device and process that allows a user to select a particular topic or genre of interest, and then to incrementally scan the currently available programs that are likely to be of that topic or genre. A channel-up or channel-down activation on a control remote device effects the selection of the next or prior available channel that is likely to contain a program of a particular selected genre, or category. The invention includes an identification of the programs that are likely to relate to each particular category. When the user selects a category, the user is provided a means for incrementally selecting each program contained within the selected category; the channel number associated with the selected program is automatically determined, and the display device is tuned to that channel number.
The invention also includes the display of program information to aid the user in the selection process. The user is provided the option of selecting a program from among the displayed program information directly, without the need for explicitly selecting a channel number. The displayed program information may include images, thereby facilitating a program selection without relying solely upon program name recognition. The displayed program information may also include text, animation, audio, and links to other sources of information.
The invention includes a list builder that creates a number of different lists, each list containing an identification of programs that are likely to relate to each particular topic or genre. When the user selects a topic or genre, the appropriate list is accessed, and the user is provided a means for incrementally selecting the programs contained in the selected list. In a preferred embodiment, the list builder includes a number of capabilities for improving the selective quality of the lists, having access, for example, to an information source that provides the time of each scheduled program on each channel, and an indication of each program""s topic or genre. In like manner, the creation of the lists or the selection of the appropriate list are enhanced and improved based upon expressed and implied preferences that are determined, for example, by a history of the user""s past selections and/or past rejections.